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Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Lefty’s Rule

Yes, today is officially OUR day….International Left Handers’ Day…. What is it to be left-handed??? All year round, we fit in with home and office layouts designed for right-handers’ comfort, but NOT TODAY! It seems left and right handedness may be argued over, like the chicken and the egg……Stone Age implements discovered seem equally divided between left and right and studies of cave drawings have indicated a preference for the left hand. When tools became more sophisticated, a clear hand preference emerged. The right hand preference may have originated in sun worship. In the Northern hemisphere you have to face south to follow the sun and move from left to right until the suns sets in the west. This gave moving to the right and the right hand side a great significance. Another theory says that as the heart is on the left hand side, a shield would have to be in the left hand to defend it and any weapon therefore had to be held in the right, which became the dominant hand. Recent theories have included one that right-handedness is the normality and left-handedness is a deficiency which results from a traumatic birth! Left-handers have done quite badly over the years and many old superstitions still survive today. I can remember, as a child entering school, my mother being asked by the teachers if she would like my left hand tied behind my back so that I would “learn” how to be right handed…can you believe it??? Thank God my mum had the nouse to say a very firm NO! However, even languages refer to ‘lefties’ in a not so good light…… There are a lot of sayings where “right” is good and “left” is bad e.g., “being in your right mind”, “the divine right of kings”, it will be all right in the end” as against being “left out”, having “two left-feet”, “a left-handed compliment” (one that is not really meant!). Even the word for “left-handed” in many languages is very negative: Language Word for Left Handed Meaning Greek Skaios Ill-omened, awkward Italian Mancino Crooked, maimed Spanish Zurdo Reverse – No Ser Zurdo = Clever French Gauche Awkward, clumsy Dutch Linkshandig To “have two left hands” means to be clumsy. German Links, Linkisch Awkward Norwegian Kjevhendt Crooked-handed Swedish Vänsterhänt Australia Mollie Dooker Something to do with having fists like a girl Portuguese Canhoto Latin SinisterDexter On the left-hand sideOn the right hand side (dextrous) So you see….being left handed can be hard! But check out who our famous (and very creative) counterparts are…. Leonardo Da Vinci, Ruben,Bach, both Ginger Rodgers AND Fred Astaire, Pierce Brosnan, Morgan Freema, Hugh Jackman, Judy Garland, Demi Moore, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, Celine Dion, Sir Paul McCartney, Mozart and Schumann….and that’s only a few! What a creative bunch we lefties are! So why not have a go at some left handed craft for the day and see what challenges us in our craft……

Cutting – using right-handed scissors in left hand is an excellent example of totally right-biased design that doesn’t work well.

Having the computer mouse on the left of the keyboard and try drawing a shape on screen, or clicking and dragging – we usually have to do this with our right hand as the mouse is shared, and always set up for right-handed users

Happy (Belated) Lefty Day! My son writes lefty and when he started kinder they asked me what hand I wanted him to write with. I looked at them blankly and said "With the hand he naturally writes with, of course!" It didn't even occur to me to "pick" the hand he would write with.